


Calling You (Maybe)

by EternalEclipse



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Fluff and Angst, M/M, UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4, in that order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21933082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/pseuds/EternalEclipse
Summary: Ichigo never answers his phone, and Kisuke always does.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 179
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	Calling You (Maybe)

**Author's Note:**

> For Uraichi PC4 prompt 029. "Please leave a message after the tone."
> 
> As for the title, I'm so sorry. :P

Ichigo never picked up his phone. Rather, he treated it rather like he did his body—like it was a tool, meant to be used while it could and abandoned when it wasn’t useful. Goodness and the bags under Kisuke’s eyes from inventing better mass mental manipulation techniques knew that Ichigo didn’t much care about the consequences of these things when someone’s life was on the line. Ichigo would never know how close he came to getting diagnosed with something to explain his frequent loss of consciousness and bodily functions with how often emergency medical services were called on a ‘collapsed teenage boy with distinctive orange hair’.

Alas. The perils of knowing a Shiba bent on justice.

Kisuke tried inventing a better phone. Simple, no? Something that stayed with his Shinigami form primarily, that he wouldn’t have to think about taking. The early prototypes were either too bulky or couldn’t withstand the force of Ichigo’s bankai. And even when he’d succeeded, he’d thought, Ichigo just kept getting them destroyed in melee fights.

He’d learned to look at it as a net positive. If Ichigo wasn’t answering, he was probably fighting someone or something, and Kisuke would go out and take a look if Ichigo’s reiatsu went high enough. He’d listen to the snarky voicemail message Ichigo never changed and leave a message after the dial tone. Ichigo would come by the shop after and Kisuke would see that he was fine.

It was enough.

And then the day came that Ichigo called Kisuke in the middle of war preparations.

There was no time. The Quincies were upon them. Good fighters were falling left and right with a precision that would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been so terrifying. Things were bad enough that he’d even agreed to work with his old third seat, who had only grown more ostentatious and arrogant since he’d last seen him. There was no time.

And yet, when it mattered the most, Ichigo called. And Kisuke? He picked up.

* * *

Kisuke always picked up his phone. In the middle of the night or the middle of the day, when the world was at peace or when it was falling apart at the seams, Ichigo knew that if he called Kisuke, he wouldn’t even make it to voicemail. He didn’t even know what his voicemail sounded like. No one else had that privilege, no one except Yoruichi, so Ichigo knew how seriously Kisuke took him.

When Ichigo called that day from Unagiya’s shop to pass on a suspicious rumor he’d heard from a few spirits on the way, he wasn’t expecting to learn that that voicemail was a sunny “If the world is ending, please leave a message after the tone. Otherwise please leave a message with the friendly neighborhood black cat, she’s very friendly.”. He also wasn’t expecting the near heart attack and rush of adrenaline,

It was the work of moments dial Yoruichi and start sprinting towards the Shoten. Had he been kidnapped? Had the Shinigami done something? Was he dead?

Yoruichi’s phone went to voicemail and Ichigo just focused on getting to the Shoten as quickly as possible.

The front looked immaculate as usual, with Ururu behind the register looking shy as usual. The back looked like it usually did as well, nothing new to see except that Tessai wasn’t there. That wasn’t too uncommon either. But what else…

 _The lab_ , he thought. What if something had gone wrong in the lab? The place was fireproofed and soundproofed and everything-proofed for the sake of the Shōten’s structural integrity. And the door was usually locked to boot, for the same reason. Kisuke could have died in there and he wouldn’t know.

The door was locked when he got there, signaling that the lab was in use. Ichigo rifled around in his bag for the spare key Kisuke had given to him not long after Ichigo had moved in for good. He had to dig deep to find it, but no one would be impressed if he just cero’d the wall next to the door again instead.

He found it and opened the door. “Kisuke?” Ichigo called out. “Are you there?” The lights were on and steady, and there were no new explosion marks that he could see. He shut the door behind him and began carefully picking his way through the room.

There. A figure slumped onto Kisuke’s desk, unmoving, wearing a familiarly atrocious green and cream bucket hat. Ichigo rushed over to Kisuke, shaking his shoulder. His hand came away bloody, and he swore. Ichigo could feel the adrenaline rushing as he took a moment to take in the situation.

No. Nope. Surely he wouldn’t have been stupid enough not to wait—but oh, on the desk, there was a textbook open to a specific page and a pair of notebooks covered in Kisuke’s perfect calligraphy that he always called his chicken scratch. When Kisuke woke up, Ichigo was going to punt his ass all the way around the training ground and back so hard he’d wish he’d never been born.

Ichigo took care of the mess, calling his sister to let her know he wouldn’t be home for dinner. It took Kisuke three hours to wake up on top of however long it had been before Ichigo had gotten there.

“Ichigo?” Kisuke rasped.

Ichigo felt tears prickling suddenly behind his eyes. “What the fuck, Kisuke?”

Kisuke sat up, blinking slowly. “Oh, it worked.”

_“And that made it okay to do experimental techniques on yourself?”_

Kisuke shrugged.

“I thought you realized you weren’t alone anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t pick up your phone!”

“I’m sorry.”

Ichigo still punched him in the shoulder after Ryūken gave him a clean bill of health. It was only right. “And what was with that voicemail, asshole? You were better about picking up your phone when the world was actually ending!”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the one I was going to cut at the end of the part above the page separator, but decided to keep in the rest anyway. I hope it was enjoyable to read. Thanks!


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